lessons in physics and other such things
by Inky Perspective
Summary: glee/young justice fusion. (seblaine/traught) Sebastian Smythe is still trying to balance a new school, being a good son, and being a member of an undercover superhero team. No big deal. If only he didn't have to be paired with Blaine Anderson, resident orphaned nerd, for a ridiculous school project.


When Sebastian agreed to attend Dalton Academy, he did not sign up to play chaperon to some nerdy charity case. He had been fine at his old school; maybe not particularly happy per se, but certainly content. He had never exactly been good at keeping under the radar, but he made it work well enough. He had to. His mother had only just been released from prison and things were still difficult at home. They were adjusting to living together, just the two of them, to the absence Santana's departure had left.

When the letter came, scholarship enclosed, his mother had looked at him with such hope in her eyes. Dalton Academy presented a life that she had never been able to have for herself, never could have. It was the chance to pursue an education and to make something good of his life. And with such hope gleaming in her eyes, how could he say no?

So he said yes.

If he would have known that he would be playing babysitter to Blaine Anderson, the former circus freak and mathematical genius, he might have reconsidered.

Blaine was nice enough, he supposed. Though he would never confess to it, Sebastian almost preferred Blaine's company over some of their classmates. There was a superficial air to them all, the sons and daughters of Westerville's most elite (and, in some cases, most corrupt), that Blaine stood above. Despite being the ward of arguably the wealthiest man in North America, Blaine remained at the bottom of the social hierarchy, accompanied by his best friend, Tina Cohen-Chang, and managed to preserve a level head.

And Sebastian understood why.

Blaine was eccentric. He kept his hair slicked back, locked to his head in a helmet, and never could resist tossing in a calculus joke to fill uncomfortable silences. He was exuberant and filled with boundless energy, bouncing from classroom to classroom and never able to remain still in lectures. The teachers at the academy were frequently torn between exasperation and frustration when it came to the boy, and his peers all looked down their noses at him for being the orphaned circus freak (a staggeringly simple feat considering the boy's slight figure).

Despite it all, Blaine remained upbeat and cheery, even with the unfortunate circumstances. It certainly was not easy to forget how the boy had found himself among Westerville's elite, something their peers took care to remind him of every day: The tragic circus accident that had robbed him of both his parents did not easily slip one's mind. Sebastian in particular knew what it was like to lose his parents, but he could not imagine what it would be like to have such finality to it.

Sebastian merely tolerated Blaine's presence most days, but if he was being honest with himself, Blaine occasionally reminded him of another eccentric gymnast. A gymnast he could have been spending the afternoon with, instead of finding himself playing science partner to Blaine Anderson. (A fact he was only slightly bitter about.)

"C'mon Anderson, are you almost done yet?"

"You know, Sebastian, things might move just a little faster if someone actually contributed to the project. But that's just a thought," Blaine snapped, running a hand through his hair. It was a wonder the hand could even make any traction through the cement barrier.

He yawned, stretching his arms above his head. "I thought you were the expert in physics, killer. Or was that just another attempt to play teacher's pet?"

Blaine did not comment, only furrowing his brow in response.

Sebastian wondered what the team was doing today. He knew they didn't have any missions lined up, but he had hoped to be able to make it to the cave sometime before dinner. He had heard that Robin had mastered a new move and Sebastian was eager to learn it himself. As the only non-superpowered heroes on the team, the pair had struck up a companionship and often made a point of imparting their secrets of success to each other. Though Sebastian would never admit it (especially to Kid Flash), seeing Robin always made his day markedly better. The pair had been friends for two years now, and Robin had finally grown into his ears, his features more defined (though his sense of humor remained at a juvenile level on most good days). And, though Sebastian was hesitant to confess, it was growing more and more difficult to resist running his hands through those untamed curls.

"Anderson, I'm bored. Take a break for a minute and entertain me."

That was, to Sebastian's mirth, apparently the last straw.

"Dammit, Sebastian!" Blaine pushed back from his chair, rising to his feet, chest heaving. "We have been here for two hours and you haven't even made a single attempt at helping. One single it on your own!"

And with that, he stormed from the room.

Oh.

* * *

When Sebastian arrived at the cave later, he was surprised to find that Robin was nowhere in sight. Instead of being greeted by the Boy Wonder himself, Rachel swarmed to him instead, arms laden with cookies.

"Sebastian! Here, I tried this new recipe! They made it on an episode of Hello R—er, nevermind. Would you like to try one?"

Grinning, he reached for one of the thankfully unscathed cookies. Rachel's cooking had improved remarkably over the years, and no longer was he hesitant to test her recipes. The same could not be said for Robin who still made a point to pull one of his famous disappearing acts and avoid the kitchen like his life depended on it when hearing news of Rachel's latest attempts at mastering Earth's recipes. Perhaps that was where he had disappeared to.

"So," he said, swallowing. "Who all's here?"

Rachel beamed at him. "Well, Quinn's working on Sphere at the moment, but she says hello. And Sam's still in Atlantis, I think, but he said he's planning to stop by for supper. Finn's in the kitchen, though I think he's just mourning the fact that Robin isn't here yet. Apparently they were supposed to have a video game tournament tonight, but the Joker escaped again."

Which meant no Robin. Because his day couldn't get any better, of course.

"Just don't let him eat himself into a depressive food coma, Rachel. That's the last thing we need," he laughed. Finn and Robin had been best friends for years, and while Finn had grown slightly less unbearable over the years, he still had a tendency to overreact in certain situations—and then compensate with food. "I'm going to go see if Quinn needs any help. Or if Wolf needs any company."

* * *

It wasn't until the day his science project was due that Sebastian saw Robin again.

He had zeta-beamed in from Westerville in an awful mood. He was supposed to present their project today with Blaine, but the circus freak had the audacity to skip out on class instead, leaving Sebastian to do the presentation on his own. While Sebastian was self-aware enough to admit that, technically speaking, it was only fair, he had still left class humiliated and with the knowledge that because of his lackluster performance, he and Blaine would be receiving less than upstanding grades on the assignment.

"What's wrong with you?"

Startled, Sebastian spun around, lunging for the knife he kept on his person. At the sound of familiar cackling, he relaxed. "Very funny, Rob."

The other boy grinned, sunglasses flashing in the light. "I thought so."

Huffing, Sebastian dropped himself on to the couch beside his teammate. "Don't even ask about how my day went," he said. "The levels of suck are unparalleled." He rubbed his temples, groaning. "My pipsqueak lab partner bailed on presentations, and now I'm pretty sure we're going to get a failing grade." He could already imagine his mother's disappointment.

"Hm," said Robin thoughtfully, before releasing a wracking cough. "That doesn't sound very considerate."

"I know! My thoughts exactly. The little brat thinks he can just ditch and not have to pull his own—" He paused. "Well, I might not have been the best partner in the history of partners. But still. That was totally uncalled for!"

Robin nodded in understanding. "It's not like you would ever abandon someone else to do the work, either. I don't know what your partner was thinking; that's not like you at all, and you certainly didn't deserve that treatment in return."

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably. "Well," he said. "I might've been a little less than helpful the other day, but in my defense, I know very little about physics."

One dark brow quirked in vaguely-familiar response.

"I probably deserved it, didn't I?"

A grin split across his friend's face, "I don't know, Bas. Did you?"

After a moment of silence, the grin dropped from his face. "Seriously, though, I know you would never consider pulling less than your own weight for the team; it's what makes you such a valuable asset. Why would you not do the same for this kid? Just because it results in a failing grade instead of death or some super villain takeover, that's still not very whelming."

Sebastian loved Robin. He did. Which was why it never failed, that he almost always made him like shit sometimes—not unjustly.

"I should probably apologize, shouldn't I?"

Robin smiled at him, flopping to put his head on Sebastian's lap, getting comfortable, his eyes fluttering shut. "It wouldn't hurt," he yawned, purring as Sebastian dropped his fingers into his curls. "He might just forgive you after all."

Before sleep eventually took the younger boy (Rachel would later inform him that he had been bedridden all day to a vicious head-cold), he could almost swear he heard grumbling about a "Bruce" and "damn secrets."

But that was a story for another day.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Holy God, it's been ages since I've watched Young Justice. (Which is kind of upsetting.) Because of that, I apologize if I got something drastically wrong.

Artemis and Dick are kind of my forever OTP, so I tried to put Blaine and Sebastian in similar circumstances, while retaining aspects of their own personalities. (Oddly enough, I can see Blaine filling both Artemis and Dick's roles, but I dunno, Sebastian seems a little too jaded to be Dick, so Artemis it was. I'm actually fairly pleased with how that turned out.) Also, I'm awful at writing action scenes so this fluffy stuff happened instead of the awesome ass-kicking. Maybe next time!

Also, Blaine = Robin, Sebastian = Artemis, Rachel = Miss Martian, Quinn = Superboy, Sam = Aqualad, Finn = Kid Flash, Tina = Barbara, and Bruce is still Bruce (mainly because no glee adult is competent enough to be Batman, imo). Thank you for the prompt, blainelovessebastian! 3

And, hey, check me out on tumblr: inkyperspective. I promise I don't bite. Much. And it would make me very happy. ;)


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